Lasso Ceremony (El Lazo): Meaning, How It Works, and the Script

The first time I performed a lasso ceremony, the bride’s grandmother was crying before we even started. She’d been married with a lazo fifty-two years earlier in Puebla, and she never expected to see her granddaughter under one too. That’s the thing about this ritual: it carries generations in it. When you drape the lazo, you’re not just symbolizing a bond, you’re joining a line of marriages that came before.

So I treat it with the weight it deserves, and if you’re including it, I’d ask you to as well.

What is the lasso ceremony (el lazo)?

The lasso ceremony, el lazo, drapes a large rosary, cord, or floral garland in a figure-eight over both partners’ shoulders after the vows, symbolizing their eternal, unbreakable bond. The figure eight is an infinity loop: no beginning, no end.

It’s a tradition of Catholic and Hispanic weddings. In a Catholic Mass the lazo is blessed and placed just before the Nuptial Blessing, which comes after the Our Father (Order of Celebrating Matrimony), and the couple usually wears it until the Mass ends.

Who places it, and when

This is the part that matters most, and the part generic guides get wrong. The lazo is placed by the padrinos de lazo, sponsors the couple chooses, traditionally a happily married couple held up as an example of a strong marriage. They place it over the groom’s shoulders first, then the bride’s, forming the figure eight. At the end of the Mass, the priest or the same padrinos remove it.

The lazo is often given as a gift by the padrinos. In many Catholic weddings it’s a long beaded rosary with a crucifix at the center rather than a plain cord.

Side by side, the two traditions look like this.

	El lazo	Las arras
What it is	Cord, rosary or garland	Thirteen coins
Stands for	Union	Prosperity and trust
Given by	The padrinos	The groom, or both

Many Hispanic ceremonies include both, each with padrinos who sponsor it.

The full lasso ceremony script

CEREMONY SCRIPT

Lasso Ceremony Script (El Lazo)

COPY SCRIPT

OFFICIANT:

[Partner A] and [Partner B], having joined yourselves in marriage, will now be united by el lazo.

[The padrinos come forward.]

[Padrino names] will place the lazo, a sign that these two are now bound together as one.

[The padrinos drape the lazo over the groom’s shoulders, then the bride’s, forming a figure eight.]

This cord forms an infinity, with no beginning and no end. Let it remind you, and everyone who loves you, that your lives are now a single, unbroken circle.

[The couple remains under the lazo through the blessing.]

May your union be as strong and as endless as the bond now resting on your shoulders.

Read it aloud once with your padrinos so they know the moment you’ll nod them forward.

Honoring the tradition

If el lazo is part of your heritage or faith, build it in with your family’s blessing and let it carry its full meaning. If you’re drawn to it from outside the tradition, learn what it means and name that meaning in the ceremony, rather than using it as a pretty prop. The respect is the point.

Get the full kit

The Couple’s Ceremony Kit has sixteen other unity rituals written out in full. The lasso’s closest cousin is handfasting, which binds the hands instead of the shoulders. See how both fit in the unity ceremony ideas guide, or take the free Unity Ceremony Quiz.

Frequently asked questions